Walking Through Shadows
by TrowbridgeAislinFletcher
Summary: Days after Dumbledore was killed Draco Malfoy was found by muggle police drugged and beaten in an alley.Kidnapped from muggle hospital by the Order and suffering from poisoning and bouts of extreme hallucination he struggles to remember whats happened...


Chapter 1

We were standing just outside the wrought iron gate of a tidy little house preceded by a neat little garden filled with purple and blue roses

'What is this place?'

Malfoy refused to answer, reaching instead for the gate's latch and striding up the walkway to ring the bell.

I had no choice but to hurry after him and stand awkwardly half on half off the tiny stoop that even the graceful and poised Draco Malfoy looked unbalanced on as a small, kindly looking old woman answered the door.

"Well hello there lads. Is there something I can help you with?" her voice had a bit of an Irish lit to it.

Malfoy barely let her get to the end of her sentence 'yes, if you please, is Felix home?'

The old woman's face fell slightly and I knew the answer before she spoke.

"Oh my, Felix isn't in at the moment…"

"May we leave him a message with you?"

The old woman looked startled for a moment before melting back into her pleasant self.

"You're welcome to," she began obviously thinking as she spoke "but if its terribly urgent then perhaps you ought to catch him at work and speak to him."

Malfoy's dark expression brightened.

'May I leave a message with you in case I miss him at work?'

She smiled "of course laddy, now have you got the address for Pandemonium?"

A Half- hour, two slices of German black forest cake and a chilled glass of milk later I found myself navigating the bus system on our way to London. Malfoy looked uncomfortable seated next to me on a muggle bus wearing a pair of Ron's faded brown corduroy pants and the muggle football T and red sports jacket Dean gave me for Christmas last year. Even the beaten trainers he was wearing courtesy of Fred and George Weasley whose feet were smaller than Ron's seemed to make him uncomfortable as he nervously shifted his toes in them.

The London bound bus was fairly packed and at each stop it seemed as though muggles were only getting on the bus and adding to the crowd. The distaste I was sure he was hiding behind that blank mask of his was the root of my surprise when he stood and surrendered his seat to a pretty young woman who was obviously pregnant and stood jammed in the middle of that muggle mob until our stop arrived.

When we finally managed to force our way through the crowd to the door the doors were closing and the bus was pulling away from the curb and beginning to pick up speed. I lunged forward and jammed the door open with my fingers and pried it open with a grunt.

'Lets just jump' I said over my shoulder and leaping from the bus hoping he'd have the common sense to follow suit. I stumbled a bit but, though I'd never leapt out of a moving vehicle before, I was more prepared for the rough landing then Malfoy who landed awkwardly and sliced his hand open on a bit of broken pavement.

'Bloody Merlin' his breath hissed through his teeth and he curled his hand up cupping the wound and tucked it away in his pocket, seeming to believe I hadn't noticed and I chose not to say anything.

We had to walk a couple blocks before we found it and only then because a tousled haired boy in a brilliant red T-shirt urging people to 'Save the Hungarian Horntail' stumbled out of a knobby set of ancient looking double doors which I hadn't noticed before laughing about something as he carried several bags of trash to the curb.

'Excuse me' Malfoy called catching the boy's attention. ' Do you work at Pandemonium?"

The boy straightened, he was several years younger than us and studying us through the dark locks of hair he didn't bother to shake out of his eyes.

'Yeah, S'there something you want?'

'There is.' With that Malfoy sent the boy off with the message he'd left with the old woman.

_Please tell Felix that Draco urgently needs to speak with Atrius_

Moments later the same trash lad poked his head out the door

'What're you still standing out here for? Come in, sit down, spend some money, leave a tip,' he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively ' Davies gets off work in fifteen minutes, says he'll come find _you_'

The boy lead us into Pandemonium which proved itself worthy of the name from the moment we stepped inside, the outer perimeter of the building must have had some powerful silencing charms in place. It was a pub doubling as an inn much like the Leaky Cauldron only it was nearly twice the size the Cauldron's size and seemed to draw in a livelier, if not younger, crowd not unlike Rosemerta's Three Broomsticks on a Hogsmeade weekend.

There was a small stage opposite the bar where a lovely Blond girl was wailing out a mournful melody in a language I'd never heard before but the regulars obviously had, as they would join in every so often wailing just as mournfully along with her. Trash-boy led us to a table with a nice view of the live performance and introduced himself as Lyle Kay.

'Here's a couple of menus,' he slapped two fairly large books down on the table before us, ' when you've decided what you want just mosey on over to Amtzane, the bartender, he'll take your order and get your food back to you over here. I imagine Felix'll be over in a bit so till then enjoy your selves Evy up there takes requests so don't hesitate to fight that lot up there for the next song.' He said, indicating a large group of rowdy teenaged boys before catching sight of a dark haired girl who'd just walked in and turning away from them calling 'Ozzra! Hey Ozzy Faye, don't you pretend you don't see me, Oy! I can see you walking faster…'

After a cursory glance at the menu and a quick mental count of all the sickles and Knuts in my pocket I decided on Shepard's pie and butter beer, Malfoy has also made up his mind so we rose as one and approached the bar. Amtzane, the bar tender was a giant of a guy, nearly 6 feet 5 inches tall and very bulked up, he smiled when he saw us with startling white teeth. "Lo there, I imagine Y'all're the ones waitin' on Pixy Felixy?" Malfoy snorted rather loudly to my right. "Yeah, he knows what I means, ha. Well, s'nice to see new faces in here, Y'all from outta town?"

"Not terribly"

" Lemme guess, you from surrey and you, more of a north shire feel to ya." Our surprise must have shown on our faces because the giant grinned some more "I never fail to guess correctly, so what can I do for you?"

"Lyle said you're the one who takes our orders"

"Clever one that Lyle, so what'd'ya fancy?"

We placed our orders and returned to our table. After several moments filled with a stiff silence hanging in the air I opened my mouth to ask the question I'd been dying to get the answer to but Malfoy must have read my mind because he cut me off with a reply

"He's my cousin"

The surprise must have shown itself on my face because he continued. 'My father's elder brother Niro married Tytus Rhodes and they had a son, Atrius, my cousin."

"But I've never heard of other Malfoys and its not mentioned anywhere that Lucius had a brother or any siblings for that matter…" I argued

A voice I didn't recognize spoke up from behind Malfoy

"That's because they're dead"


End file.
